Stephan: Thanks for the info. You're right in so far as I've never actually bought a copy of NLD

So, I hadn't realised it was a straight impartial choice at install time, however it always seemed to me that Novell preferred GNOME - whenever I saw screenshots produced by Novellians (and admittedly, primarily from the Ximian side ), they were using GNOME.

My personal view, as most people know, is that I prefer GNOME, always have done. That said, I do think that both desktops should be included, and allowed to have as equal a footing as possible. Resources should be put into both so that end users (or customers as some people call them) have a choice. Free Software is supposed to be about choice.